Cosmetic units of the kind in question here are usually composed of a cosmetic receptacle that is filled with a cosmetic into which a cosmetic applicator is dipped. The cosmetic applicator is typically attached with the aid of a wand to a handle that generally also constitutes the closure of the cosmetic unit. In order to be able to apply cosmetic, the closure is unscrewed or withdrawn from the cosmetic receptacle and the cosmetic applicator is pulled through a wiper and out of the cosmetic receptacle. The wiper ensures that the cosmetic applicator is loaded with approximately the desired amount of cosmetic, permitting an application of cosmetic that provides sufficient coverage, but is clump-free.
Cosmetic units of this kind are typically manufactured in a cooperative fashion. The companies that specialize in the manufacture of the actual cosmetic applicators are not usually also involved in manufacturing the cosmetic compound as such and then dispensing the cosmetic compound into the corresponding receptacle and completing the unit with the aid of a closure that supports an applicator.
In the usual manufacturing process, the cosmetic applicators are instead manufactured and packed by a company that specializes in this. The packed cosmetic applicators are then supplied to the filling plant. The filling plant also receives, often from another source, cosmetic receptacles. The filling plant then fills the cosmetic receptacles with the cosmetic compound—which is generally manufactured according to a secret recipe—and then inserts the wiper and the cosmetic applicator into the cosmetic receptacle in order to then attach the closure for the cosmetic receptacle.
As a rule, cosmetic applicators do not have the format of a rugged bottle brush of the kind used to clean beverage containers. Instead, it they generally have the form of a structure that is 10 to 25 mm long and has a diameter of approximately 4 to 6 mm and are most often equipped with hundreds of filigree bristles. The bristles are thin and delicate.
Today, many applicator manufacturers still follow a procedure in which they drop cosmetic applicators that they have produced on the production line into a box and then they deliver the box contents of several hundred or thousand applicators in so-called “bulk” form to the filling company. This supply arrangement incurs only a small amount of packaging expense, the packaging can also be produced very efficiently, and the finished manufactured applicators need only be simply dropped into the box from the production line that transports them. At the same time, it is not uncommon for this type of supply in “bulk” form to cause problems at the filling plant.
On the one hand, there is the constantly recurring problem that the filigree bristles (which are rod-shaped structures whose length is many times greater than their maximum diameter so that the bristle tips can be reversibly deflected by an amount that corresponds to many times the maximum bristle diameter until the bristle finally snaps off or at least no longer stands all the way up again) of the relatively small applicators become damaged when an applicator has several hundred or thousand applicators on top of it in a box and is therefore subjected to corresponding compressive forces. It is not uncommon for the applicators at the bottom of a box to have deformed bristles, particularly if the box in question has been in intermediate storage for days or weeks instead of being used “just in time.”
On the other hand, there are also the constantly recurring problems due to the fact that the applicators equipped with bristles catch on one another when they are just carelessly thrown into a box and transported in “bulk” form, not least due to the influence of the vibrations that are typical in the course of road or rail transport and the cargo handling that this involves. Because of this, difficulties arise at the filling plant, where it is necessary to be able to reliably pick up only individual cosmetic applicators in order to supply them to their further intended purpose.
Because of this, there has recently been a changeover to supplying high quality applicators not in “bulk” form, but rather as products that are individually inserted into corresponding sorting devices, either manually or using high quality industrial robots. In this connection, one selection means, for example, is a belt, which can be mechanically supplied to the filling system and on which the applicators are fastened at defined distances from one another so that they can be reliably picked up one after the other in order to equip the filled cosmetic receptacles. The equipping of such a belt, however, requires an undesirable amount of effort by the applicator manufacturer.
Even “individually inserting” applicators into sorting or holding devices—for example inserting them into cardboard packages with hollows for separately holding applicators or into cardboard bases for individual insertion of the applicators like artificial flowers that are “planted neatly in rows” in a bed by inserting them into it—is not a completely satisfactory solution because of the labor it entails.
The foregoing example of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.